The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for foam forming, wherein fibrous foam suspension is introduced from the head box (78, 178) of a production machine to the web forming section thereof. At least one solid material is mixed into the foam in the head box (78, 178). The method and the apparatus of the invention are particularly suitable for manufacturing various web-like products of cellulose, glass fiber, aramide, sisal, or other corresponding fibre material.
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1. A method for forming a fibrous web comprising the steps of:
(a) introducing a fibrous foam suspension of solids directly from a head box of a production machine to a web forming section thereof, and
(b) removing foam through at least one wire located in the web forming section of the production machine to thereby form the fibrous web, wherein
(c) at least a part of the solids needed for forming the fibrous foam suspension is mixed into the foam in the head box by spraying the foam from nozzles into the head box.
24. An apparatus for forming a fibrous web comprising:
a head box having one or more lip openings, and a web forming section, in direct communication with the one or more lip openings,
at least one wire, and
foam removal means located on a side of the at least one wire opposite to the formed web, wherein
the head box further includes means for receiving foam, means for introducing at least one solid material to the head box, and feeding nozzles for spraying foam and thereby mix the at least one solid material into the foam to form a foam suspension.
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This application is the US national phase of international application PCT/FI02/00865 filed 7 Nov. 2002 which designated the U.S. and claims benefit of FI 20012168, dated 9 Nov. 2001, the entire content of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for foam forming. The method and apparatus of the invention are particularly suitable for forming various web-like products of cellulose, glass fibre, aramide, sisal, or other corresponding fibre material. The method and apparatus of the invention are particularly suitable for manufacturing sophisticated multi-layer laminates or composites for use in, e.g. various vehicle chassis parts, machine and apparatus enclosures and other almost innumerable applications. The method and apparatus of the invention is meant to be used in the manufacture of products utilizing long fibres or even continuous yarns, ribbons or nets. The foam as described in the invention means a foam mainly composed of water and a surfactant.
Products according to a preferable embodiment of the invention are in many cases meant to replace sheet metal structures previously used for the same applications, because the sheet metal structures and other corresponding metal structures require a great deal of care and maintenance both during manufacture and use in order to avoid, for example, rusting. Metal structures are also sensitive to even small impacts, as the impact will either cause simply aesthetic transformations or also damage the paintwork. These will, in consequence, cause rusting, especially in applications where the structures are subjected to corroding substances.
Various laminates and composites are more durable in the above-mentioned applications, but their price is in some cases slightly higher than that of the above-mentioned sheet metal structures. One of the reasons for the high cost is the complex manufacturing technology. The following example relates to the manufacture of a bonnet or a wing of an automobile.
It goes without saying that the part of a bonnet or a wing of an automobile visible to the outside must be very smooth. In any other case a painted surface the hull of a boat is another example of this will unevenly reflect light, which is considered a sign of low quality and bad manufacturing precision. In other words, laminates are required to exhibit similar surface smoothness as that of the metal sheets. In practice this means, that if the product is manufactured from, for example, glassfibre, a very fine-grained fibre must be used. A characterizing feature of such a fine-grained fibre is that a laminate produced therefrom will not be sufficiently durable for use, for example, as an automobile wing. Therefore a glassfibre wing must be manufactured from several different layers. The demand for strength and durability dictate that there be a structural layer With relatively coarse fibres, about 45-50 mm in length, sometimes more than that, sometimes less.
As a minimum, the above-mentioned two layers would be sufficient for achieving the necessary appearance and strength, but automatizing the production causes problems. First, it's obvious that the process needs a mould to closely reproduce the form of the product. The easiest way would be to arrange just a one-part mould, into which the surface mat is first placed, followed by resin. After this the reinforcing mat would be laid, on top of which is laid another layer of resin, subsequent to which the layers would be rolled together to remove any air bubbles. This kind of manufacture would, however, be totally manual, as both the spreading of resin and rolling the air bubbles must be visually monitored. In addition to this, a laminating process like this is a health risk even in good conditions, due to the gases formed during production.
The above-mentioned manual work has in the industry been replaced by a method in which resin is laid on top of the surface layer in the mould, subsequent to which a reinforcing, for example, mat is laid on top of the resin. Thus formed, the laminate is then pressed into its shape by means of the other half of the mould, which also causes the resin to press through both layers. U.S. Pat. No. 5,672,309 discloses an injection method, in which a surface layer is first placed in a mould, with another layer placed on top of it. One of the layers has an opening at a desired place. These two superimposed layers are then to some degree pressed against each other by means of the other half of the mould so that the edges of the mould start to tighten. In this phase, resin is injected between the layers through the hole in one of the layers corresponding with a nozzle in either half of the mould by means of the nozzle so that when the mould is fully closed, the resin spreads throughout the mould and impregnates both layers.
A further development of this is the vacuum injection moulding method, wherein the mould consists of two pieces placed against each other with the necessary glassfibre layers laid between. The published JP application 58-168510 in principle mentions this manufacturing technique. In addition to this, openings have been arranged in the piece or pieces of mould to inject resin into the mould and, accordingly, openings have been arranged for removing the air replaced by the resin. The term vacuum injection moulding is used, when suction is used for removing the air mentioned.
If the above-mentioned product, i.e. a wing of an automobile, is produced from the two layers mentioned, the surface layer and the reinforcing layer, it will soon be noted, that the resin does not spread well in the glassfibre layers unless the resin is introduced between the layers while the mould is slightly open, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,672,309 or unless openings are provided very close to each other at least on the side of the mould facing the reinforcing layer. The reason for this is that, when pressed together, the layers of glassfibre do not allow the resin to freely flow in the direction of the actual layer, but the main direction of the resin flow is perpendicular to the layers. So, i, it is desired to manufacture the product from these two layers by means of the vacuum injection moulding method, the mould would either have to be partly open or one of the mould halves would have to be almost totally perforated to allow the resin spread evenly inside the mould. The latter is, however, unnecessarily expensive a solution, as each resin inlet opening will in practice necessitate a resin feed tube with a conduit connected thereto.
To remedy this drawback it has been suggested that a special flow layer be used, the layer consisting of relatively thick, possibly even hollow fibres, whereby even a resin flow in the direction of the layer would be facilitated. It would naturally be preferable if the flow layer could function as a reinforcing layer or a surface layer of the product, but in practice this is not possible, especially for the surface layer, because of the coarse structure of the flow layer fibres. The smoothness of the surface layer would not satisfy the demands of the finished product. Thick and/or hollow fibres would not either afford the reinforcing layer maximal strength, whereby they can not be used in the reinforcing layers in at least demanding applications.
Thus, the result is a situation, where at least three different layers are needed in this example, unless one uses the method of partially open mould as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,672,309. In other cases, the following layers are necessary: a surface layer on the outside of the product, a reinforcing layer on the inside and a flow: layer between these two layers.
If the manufacturing process, considering the whole manufacturing chain, is to be automatized, we can describe the prior art method of manufacturing the product. This is well described in the above-mentioned Japanese published application JP 58-168510. The publication discloses how each layer is separately laid into the mould, subsequent to which the mould halves are pressed together and the resin is injected into the mould. In other words, each of the layers of the laminate is brought separately into the mould. In practice this means that each layer is produced separately, transported separately and each layer is unrolled into the mould from its own roll.
The reason for separately manufacturing each layer is that until now there have not been methods for manufacturing multi-layer products to reach a sufficient quality of the end product for both the appearance and the strength.
An intermediate step to be mentioned is a manufacturing method in which separately produced webs are combined by stitching so that at best, only one multi-layer fibre mat needs to be laid into the mould. However, it has been noted that even though handling of the fibre mat has been facilitated and the manufacture of the product has thereby been simplified, the end result is not quite as good as one could suppose. Stitching the various webs together creates transformations in the surface layer as well, whereby the stitches are visible in the surface of the end product, even though the surface itself were smooth. This will in effect lead a situation where the reinforcing layer and the flow layer can be stitched together in the three-layer product used as an example, but the surface layer has to be kept separate. In other words, the extra step of stitching reduces the number of separately handled mats from three to two. This casts some scepticism on the use of stitching.
There are a number of ways to produce the webs used as layers of the laminate. These are the so-called water method, best known from the web forming system used in a paper machine, foam method, developed by Wiggins Teape since the 1970s, and the so-called dry method. All these above-mentioned methods can be used for producing multi-layer products when needed, but until now none of the methods has been capable of producing a product of sufficient quality for the products discussed in this application.
In the water method, the problems with the fibres used in the above-mentioned solutions have been the uncontrolled flocculation of the fibres already in the head box, curling of the fibres, opening of the fibre flocks and so on. A reason for the above-mentioned problems is the powerful turbulence of the water method, which on the one hand opens already bound homogenously sized flocks and on the other hand curls single flocks, and as it mixes the suspension gives the curled fibres a possibility to collect and bind also other fibres together into unopened fibre flocks. In addition, water method is very sensitive to consistency changes, which in effect means that the consistency must be kept constant with utmost care in order for the method to even function.
When using the water method for producing multi-layer products, the fibre layers are mixed even too thoroughly because of the great turbulence level of the water method, so that the different layers cannot perform their assigned tasks in the best possible way. It must additionally be considered that the water method has from the start been developed for use in forming webs of cellulosic fibres, for which it seems to be very suitable. In other words, the size and stiffness of cellulosic fibres is suitable for water suspensions. Thus, the turbulence present in water method does not curl the cellulosic fibres or excessively mix them, but optimally as far as web forming and the operation of the head box is concerned. Because different laminates and composites, however, use a variety on fibres, most often starting from glassfibre and ending sometimes, for example, with aramide fibres, sometimes carbon fibres or even sisal or jute fibres, the requirements of the fibres set on of the web forming process are quite different from the requirements in the treatment of cellulosic fibres. For example, the size and rigidity of the fibres used in laminates and composites alone greatly differs from the size and the rigidity of the cellulose fibres.
The turbulence level present in the water method greatly depends on the viscosity of the water, which in effect means that the turbulence level is relatively constant, at least as far as the requirements of the various fibres are concerned. This naturally means that with some fibre types, for example polyester and viscose fibres, turbulence causes the fibres to bend and twist, which causes the fibres to twist around each other, forming knots and great fibre accumulations that cannot open at any subsequent step of the process.
In the dry method, on the other hand, it is difficult to establish any kind of natural bonds between the fibre layers, because there is no mixing turbulence between neither single fibres or fibre flocks nor between the fibre layers. Instead, each layer will form its own, easily detachable layer, and this will inevitably affect the quality of the end product. In the air method the length of the fibres is limited, because the fibres are spread onto the Webb from a screen that cannot operate with long fibres. If it is desired to attach the fibre layers to each other when using the air method, the layers will have to be stitched, which causes impressions on surface of the stitched layers, or a special gluing between the layers. This will, however, stiffen the product and make it difficult to roll. In addition, rolling a rigid product may cause ruptures between the layers, which will also affect the quality of the product. It is additionally typical of the air method that there will be relatively large local fluctuations of the grammage.
The foam method is situated between these two web forming methods as far as, for example, the turbulence level is concerned. The turbulence properties of the foam method are completely different from those of the water method. In the foam method, turbulence is typically only used for forming the foam, not after a homogenous foam has been formed. In other words, when producing a foam suspension in a mixing pulper, heavy turbulence is used, even though the turbulence level is, compared to the water method, smaller by a magnitude or a number of magnitudes, which means that in a foam suspension the fibres are not curled or damaged as easyly as in a water method. When moving the foam suspension from the mixing pulper to the head box, the flow is practically totally laminar, as well as in the head box itself. In a foam suspension, the fibres are bound to foam bubbles and with the bubbles, they stay essentially immobile in relation to each other until the foam collapses on the wire of the production machine under the influence of the suction boxes.
In the foam method, the consistency is not as critical as in the water method, even though the consistency of the foam suspension is a significant factor when looking for an optimal manufacturing method for each application. The basic idea in the foam method is to bind individual fibres or fibre bundles of the desired size to a foam bubble or bubbles so that the fibres or fibre bundles are not driven into contact with each other before web forming, as that might cause formation of undesired flocks.
We have noticed, that in practice the most usable method for producing both single- and multi-layer products is the foam method, by means of which each of the different fibre types can be treated in an optimal way. The foam method has not either remained the method as originally developed by Wiggins Teape and disclosed in, e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 3,938,782. In the method (
The foam suspension introduced into the production machine is usually introduced into the inlet tubing of the head box via a wire pit. In a wire pit the consistency of the foam suspension is adjusted to the desired level. The feed tubing in the head box consists of a header, nozzles arranged in connection with it and the tubing leading from the nozzles to the head box. Conventionally the tubing consists of numerous flexible plastic and rubber tubes, arranged to form loops as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,938,782 (
The solutions described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,019,871 (
When producing multi-layered products, i.e. performing a so-called multi-layer web forming, the head box can consist of a number of compartments, each of which operates independently. An example of such design is illustrated in
It has however, been found in tests, that both the prior art process of producing foam and the feeding of foam suspension into the head box are unnecessarily complex. Even more so, as for example the feed tubing has been found to form a problem in the loam suspension feed apparatus. Both actual processes and tests have shown that these tubes are prone to plugging. In practice this happens so that a single fibre, for example a curled fibre or a flock of fibres, is caught either inside the tube or at the opening of the tube, and the caught fibre or flock then catches more fibres, thereby increasing the size of the flock. In the beginning the flock is very porous, so that liquid and/or gas can still pass through it, causing fibres and possibly other solids to get caught in the flock while liquid and/or gas still flows through. Having increased in size for a while and getting progressively tighter and tighter attached to the tube or its opening the flock will also start to affect the flow of liquid and/or gas, finally causing the flow through the tube to stop. Clogging of one of the tubes of the tube system will immediately cause a change in the head box that can be reflected in a quantity large enough to affect the web discharged from the head box. Even if it is possible to flush these clogged tubes, if such a possibility has been provided for in the design of the apparatus, without totally stopping the production process, it will in even the best case demand plenty of work and in the worst case relatively large production losses. It has further been noted, as is quite natural, that the longer the fibres of the material are, the more easily the tubes and the header are blocked. Naturally, the type of the fibres used, mainly the form and the rigidity of the fibres, have an effect on both how fast the fibre flocks are formed and thus also on the clogging tendency of the tubes.
Thus, the prior art foam process, or actually the head box solution used therein is not always suitable for treating foam suspension having long fibres. It is after all a fact that depending on the fibre type the traditional head boxes used in the foam method—or rather the tube system thereof—are only capable of treating fibres that are less than 50-100 mm in length.
In some cases, for example treating thin, soft and/or long fibres, e.g. 1,7 dtex polyester and viscose fibres exceeding 30 mm in length, turbulence is not useful at all. With these fibres, even a prior art foam method cannot be used, as even a relatively small turbulence present in the mixing pulper will bend the fibres and mix them so as to get twisted around each other and to form flocks that negatively affect both the process and the end product. The water method is also totally out of the question because of the turbulence, which is higher than in the conventional foam process.
Adding some water-absorbent materials to the web has also been identified as a problem. This problem is discussed e.g. in U.S. Pat. No. 6,019,871. In this patent, the foam method has been found to be essentially better than the conventional water method, but as foam also contains water, this prior art loam method also has its drawbacks. The drawback is that for example a water-absorbent polymer used is subjected for a long time to the water present in the foam and thereby almost completely loses its effect. The above-mentioned publication tries to solve the problem by for example deep-freezing or at least cooling the polymer, coating the polymer or just by introducing the polymer as late as possible to the foam suspension being fed to the wire. All the listed measures necessitate special arrangements which naturally will increase production costs.
Even though the prior art foam method as such is quite useful for producing multi-layer products, such as triple-layer products, it has been impossible to produce by means of a prior art foam method, a product favouring long fibres because the tube systems mentioned previously have been found to clog with even shorter fibres. A partial reason for the clogging is that the less rigid fibres will bend, curl and form flocks already in the mixing pulper, while forming the foam suspension.
In FR patent publication 1,449,737, fibers and the liquid from the wire are fed to the ‘pulper-like’ mixer preceding the wire. In the mixing process either a mechanical mixer or ultrasound mixing are used, which are either not useful or is not economical in foam forming, in which for example very long fibers or even net are fed in to the head box. The operation of the ‘pulper-like’ mixer of the FR patent publication mentioned in the fashion of a head box, among other things in order to spread foam suspension evenly onto the wire, remains also unclear
We discuss the manufacture of a vehicle bumper, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,231,094, as another example of the problems connected with traditional layered materials. This bumper consist of, as shown in
The method and apparatus according to the invention solves, among others, the above-mentioned problems, a characterizing feature of the invention being that the dry materials and the foam are not mixed together to a foam suspension until they are in the head box, immediately before introducing the suspension on the wire of the production machine, by introducing the foam at a high pressure from nozzles into the head box.
Therefore, no pulper is necessary for mixing the fibrous material into the foam in the method according to the invention. Thereby there is no need for foam pumps or tubes from the header box, not to mention the tubes between the header box and the head box.
Further, the method according to the invention is totally insensible to the materials used in the foam method. The length or rigidity of the fibre can be freely chosen, because the fibre can not clog a thin tube, as there are no such tubes on the route of the fibre to the wire.
Using the method and apparatus according to the invention it is possible to introduce into one or more layers of the formed web for example a continuous fibre, yarn, ribbon, net or almost any component unecessary in the end product.
Other characterizing features of the method and apparatus according to the invention will become clear from the appended claims.
In the following, the apparatus and method according to the invention are described in more detail, with reference to the appended drawing figures, of which
In some cases a material can be introduced into the pulper only at the stage where the quantity can be measured from the foam in the pulper. This can be in connection with, for example, a pH regulator, in which case the pH of the foam in the pulper is measured and, according to the result, the pH value is regulated by introducing either an acid or base chemical into the pulper.
Essentially fibreless loam can also be introduced into the pulper 10 via line 38, the foam being returned from the suction boxes 32 of the web forming part with assistance from pump 36 either directly or via the wire pit 34.
Foam suspension is discharged from the pulper 10 as a constant flow with a pump 42 specially designed for this; the pump can be either a centrifugal pump or a displacement pump. The foam suspension can be pumped either directly to the head box 40, if its consistency is correct. It can also be pumped to the wire pit 34, where the consistency of the foam suspension is adjusted to be correct and from which the suspension is further pumped into the head box 40 or it can also be pumped into a storage tank 44, if using such is deemed necessary. From the storage tank 44 the foam suspension is preferably introduced for use by means of a pump 46.
When the foam suspension is introduced into the head box 40, according to prior art it is first fed into a header 50, wherein the foam suspension is distributed by means of nozzles 52 into a lube system 54, by means of which the foam suspension is fed into the actual head box 40. The nozzles 52 and the tube system 54 are described in more detail in connection with
From the head box 40 the foam suspension is fed into the wire 30 of the web forming part, with suction boxes 32 arranged thereunder—or in broader terms—on the side opposite to the foam suspension for removing foam through the % wire 30 with suction. The foam removed from the web thus formed is directed into the vWire pit 34 or alternatively directly into the pulper 10 producing the foam suspension.
The web formed on wire 30 is directed to drying, possibly subsequent to being coated. The post-treatments performed for the web naturally depend on the demands of the product, so it is not necessary to discuss them here.
The inlet nozzles 52 and tube system 54 shown in
This shape of the tube and the nozzle are believed to keep the foam suspension uniform and to maintain an equal turbulence in all tubes of the tube system 54. The goal is naturally to allow the tubes to discharge into the head box 40 foam suspension, in which the fibres have not been flocked, but they can readily be evenly distributed onto the wire of the production machine.
In practice, however, it has been found that the nozzles 52 and tube systems 54 clog very easily. This risk is present especially when the length of the fibres increases in the foam suspension. This has presently been found problematic, to as the foam method has been taken into industrial use and it has been noticed that a vast number of different products can be produced by means of it. This means also, among other things, multi-layer products, in which one of the layers can be, for example, a reinforcing layer. Reinforcing mats produced by means of other methods have a fibre length of about 5 to 50 mm, mainly depending on the type of the fibre, so using similar fibre lengths is a necessity in the foam method as well. This has, however, been found to be difficult in practise, as fibres of such length, naturally depending on the fibre type, can flock very easily, and once in thin tubes, they can easily clog the whole tube.
It is further to be noted that even if the disclosure of
It can easily be noticed from the manufacturing technique shown in
A characterizing feature of a preferred embodiment of the invention is that an essential part of the fibre components needed for the construction of the product is introduced “dry” into the basin. The construction of the product means in this context the fibre network typical of the product, not a component possibly belonging to the product and having an effect on its properties in use, such as activated carbon or some liquid absorbent materials.
In addition to this, foam produced in a special foam pulper 84 is introduced into the basin 80. As shown already in
It is possible and also practicable to replace at least a portion of the foam with foam returned from production via line 86, as shown with dash lines in the figure. Both the foam produced in the pulper 84 and pumped into line 92 by means of a pump 90, and foam returned from the process via line 86, are preferably sprayed in a desired amount per time unit into the basin 80 by means of nozzles 94 so that the solids are effectively mixed due to the turbulence caused by the foam jets, thus forming a uniform foam suspension. When the foam suspension is formed, it is led as a laminar flow via the bottom part 98 of the basin towards a lip opening 100.
Foam is fed from the nozzles 94 preferably with a velocity suitable for each fibre type; in other words, a velocity that will form a uniform foam suspension, but not so high as to cause too much turbulence in the fibres. Mixing can in certain circumstances be enhanced by arranging into the basin either a mechanical mixer (not shown) or by using ultrasonic or microwave mixing (not shown).
This embodiment of the invention differs from prior art foam suspension pulpers in that the solids must be introduced in a steady flow preferably for the whole length of the basin 80, corresponding to the width of the production machine wire. Thus also the foam is introduced into the basin from nozzles 94 located at about 10 cm intervals. Foam is preferably pumped to header tubes 96 arranged on both sides of the basin (in some cases, however, a header tube and nozzles are needed only on one side of the basin), from which the actual nozzles 94 lead into the basin, while the nozzles can naturally consist of longer nozzle tubes and actual nozzles arranged at the end of the tubes. According to another embodiment the header tubes are located essentially level with the upper edge of the basin 80, whereby the nozzle tubes with their nozzles can be led into the basin 80 from above it without making holes into the wall of the basin. The nozzles 94 can, if necessary, be arranged on opposite sides of the basin 80 either facing each other or staggered, depending on the desired turbulence. Nozzles 94 can further be arranged in several layers on either one or both sides of the basin 80, whereby it is possible to arrange a multi-stage mixing of fibres with the foam. Further, all nozzles 94 of one wall of the basin 80 can be unidirectional or their direction can vary as desired. The basin 80 of a preferred embodiment of the invention narrows in a downwardly direction, as shown in
For the web forming process it is essential to maintain a constant surface level of the foam suspension in the basin 80. The surface level stays constant already for the reason that all components, i.e. the solids to be fed and the foam introduced via line 92, are introduced into the basin in closely measured amounts. In addition to this, a level control can naturally be arranged in connection with the basin for controlling both the introduction of solids and foam and, if necessary, line production of fresh foam.
A head box solution suitable for forming a three-layered web is shown as a preferred embodiment in connection with
With an apparatus according to
However, it is also worth mentioning that in some cases the materials used for different layers of the web differ so much from each other that it is not preferred to use exactly similar foam in all the layers. In this case, different foams are naturally produced in different pulpers and fed to the head box basins via their own tube systems. This kind of an arrangement makes it possible to feed, for example, a certain binder to some layers of the web with the fresh foam, the binder being suitable just for the fibres used in these layers.
It should, however, be noted from the above that it can be applied to production of one-, two-, three-, or multi-layered products. Thus, the above should only be considered an example of many variations of the invention, only.
In the embodiments shown in
The head box solutions according of the invention, shown above in
This is exemplified in
In addition to the yarn 106, the solution shown in
A solution utilizing the control rolls 110 for feeding firstly the yarn, ribbon, net or the like to the web at the same speed as the web is moving, can be mentioned to here as an additional embodiment. When the production is started, said control rolls can be considered to slightly brake the speed of the yarn or the like. This is to ensure the tightness of the yarn or the like, so that it sets in the desired location in the product and cannot move in any direction. Another way of stopping the yarn or like from moving perpendicularly to its feed direction is to arrange guides in connection with the lip opening 100 for guiding the yarn or the like to the right place in the web. It is naturally also possible to introduce the yarn, ribbon, net or the like by means of a guide only to the area of the laminar flow to the bottom part of the basin or, if desired, quite deep into the web forming section, between the wires.
It is obvious, that in the case of
Even if it has in the above been disclosed that the same foam suspension is fed through tubes 114 and 116, it is naturally possible to introduce a different foam suspension in each of the tubes. In a corresponding way it is possible to form one of the narrower layers by means of a foam suspension, and the other by means of a completed web. The head box according to the invention allows the production method to be freely chosen according to the requirements and possibilities of the product.
It is naturally obvious that if one wants a product according to
Further, the tubes led through the chamber or chambers of the head box can be used for feeding into the web, in addition to completed web or foam suspension, also solids needed in the product. The solids can be, for example, simply chopped fibres, binder, a mixture of binder and chopped fibres or some so other material, with no connection to the actual layer forming. In this case the material can, for example, be SAP (super absorbent polymer), which is used for absorbing liquids, or e.g. a ribbon with seeds fastened to it at fixed intervals.
It is additionally obvious that the tubes 114 and/or 116 can be replaced with flat nozzle channels extending in the width direction of the web, which are being able to form a wide strip in the web. And, as has been disclosed in prior art, the tubes or jet channels can be longitudinally movable, whereby the introduction point of the material in the web forming section can be adjusted to suit the application. The tubes and/or nozzle channels can naturally also be made movable in the perpendicular and/or thickness direction of the web as well, if it is for some reason desired to form wave-like strips in the longitudinal direction of the web.
The above-mentioned exemplary embodiments disclose that the discussed new type of a foam method will allow production of almost any kind of fibre-based products. Thus, both inorganic and organic fibres can be used as fibre materials either on their own or together with each other. Different glass fibres, carbon fibres, quartz fibres, ceramic fibres, zirconium fibres, boron fibres, tungsten fibres, molybdenum fibres, beryllium fibres and different steel fibres can be mentioned as examples of inorganic fibres. Examples of organic fibres include polyamide fibres, polyester fibres, polyethylen fibres, acetate fibres, acryl fibres, melamin fibres, nylon fibres, modacryl fibres, olefine fibres, lyocell fibres, rayon fibres, aramide fibres and various natural fibres, such as sisal and jute fibres. The above-mentioned fibres can be used either as separate single fibers or as different fibre bundles. Also, all fibre lengths can be used, from a very short length of only a few millimetres to a fully continuous fibre.
As is clear from the above, a new type of product series has been developed, which can be produced ony by means of the above-mentioned new kind of foam web forming. It should be noted that in the above the term “foam” has been used throughout the text to describe either fresh foam produced from water and surfactant, or reusable foam recycled from the suction boxes of the production machine, whereby an essential part of the solids have been retained to the product on the wire. Thus “foam” could be determined to mean essentially fibre-free foam. Ene term “foam suspension”, on the other hand, means foam containing fibres and/or solids, i.e. in principle foam on its way to the production machine to yield an essential part of the solids onto the wire.
Rokman, Kay, Laine, Eino, Blomqvist, Rainer, Kostamo, Harri
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